Alzheimer's Education

Despite the absence of a cure for Alzheimer's disease, there are proven ways to help your brain stay young and reduce your chances of developing this disease.

1. Mental and physical exercise during

Exercise keeps the brain healthy. Either use it or lose it. Increase regular physical activity blood flow to the brain and provides the nutrients necessary to render its tissues resistant to Alzheimer's disease. Exercise also increases the number of connections among the millions of brain cells needed for normal mental function. Make a habit of walking for thirty or sixty minutes a day as briskly as possible. Stair climbing is particularly effective, to take action when you go up or down one or two flights and leave the elevators and escalators for the children.

2. Education

Several population studies have shown that the more education you have, the greater your chances against Alzheimer's disease. This may be because the more educated are more likely to eat healthily and to receive better medical care throughout their lives. However, as physical exercise, mental retardation continues to stimulate the formation of nerve connections. Even if you are destined to develop Alzheimer's disease, more neutrons you develop when you're younger, you can afford to lose before symptoms set in.

Many retired seniors sign up for courses in accounting, law, art, music, economics, or any other interest in staying mentally active, and not necessarily to start a second career. The more you pursue your studies at any age, or keep your mind occupied in other ways, more neurons are in contact with them later.

3. Stress reaction

Stress is blamed for almost everything that goes wrong in life. Although stress is a convenient scapegoat, it probably plays a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. The body reacts to stress by producing additional quantities of cortisol, a hormone that reduces the hippocampus, the brain area that controls memory and interferes with its normal operation. The calmer and more confident you are in a crisis, if it is brief or extended, less cortisol is produced.

4. Diet

Eat little animal fat as possible to reduce your vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease in different countries correlates with the consumption of total fat. Fro example, the United States, 5 percent of all people aged over sixty-five years have the disease, while in China and Nigeria, where fat intake is much lower, the incidence is only 1 percent. Japanese who move to America and double the amount of fat in their diet have twice the incidence of Alzheimer's than those who do not emigrate and presumably maintain their old eating habits.

5. Nicotine

Nicotine is an excellent example of how new research data can not replace and negate previously acquired information. We used to believe that smokers were less likely than non-smokers to develop Alzheimer's disease. But anti-tobacco community is now breathing easier because more recent studies indicate that smoking doubles the risk of contracting Alzheimer's disease.

6. Vitamin E

Not a day goes by without some not favorable report on vitamin E. I do not see any drawback of this vitamin, with the possible exception of blood pressure increase and cause premature in some people. Vitamin E increases fertility in rats, it's good for the heart, and many doctors prescribe for treatment of vascular disease, especially to reduce the arteries in the legs. Now comes word that vitamin E may also delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, presumably because of its antioxidant properties.